NEW YORK — Can’t count out Serena Williams, no matter how big the deficit, no matter how off-target her strokes, no matter how much the pressure might be mounting as she bids for a calendar-year Grand Slam.
Eight times this season at major tournaments, Williams has dropped the opening set. Eight times, she has won.
The latest comeback was in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday night, when Williams figured out a way to deal with a tricky opponent and get her own game going before it was too late, eventually emerging to grab the last eight games for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
“I’m not trying to live on the edge,” Williams said with a big smile.
Perhaps. Still, no one does it better. And with so much at stake, no less.
“She’s a great closer,” Mattek-Sands said. “Always has been.”
The No. 1-ranked Williams is trying to become the first tennis player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same season.
She won the Australian Open on hard courts in January, the French Open on clay courts in June, Wimbledon on grass courts in July, and now is four wins away from adding the trophy on the hard courts of the U.S. Open. Next up is a fourth-round match Sunday against yet another American, 19th-seeded Madison Keys.
Looking down the line, Williams’ quarterfinal opponent could be her older sister Venus, who reeled off the last five games to beat 12th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4.
In men’s action, No. 1 Novak Djokovic and defending champion Marin Cilic moved into the fourth round, while Rafael Nadal hoped to join them in the night’s closing match. Two top-10 players lost — No. 7 David Ferrer and No. 10 Milos Raonic — and No. 14 David Goffin, citing stomach problems, became the 13th man to retire during a match because of injury or illness.